Digital menu boards are a great way to provide your guests with clear information about the various dishes and drinks. But where exactly are the advantages, and how do they work? We summarized the most important facts for you here. Finally, we'll show you how to implement digital menu boards with our digital signage software.
Digital menu boards are made up of several screens that display information about the food and drinks in a restaurant. Meanwhile, some fast-food restaurants are also experimenting with interactive menu boards for their guests, which allow them to choose and order menus on a touchscreen.
Digital menu boards offer many advantages. It takes a lot less time to change the menu of the day and to advertise special offers. Furthermore, the digital menu board also integrates images, animations, and videos. The menu is presented in a more attractive manner, giving the guest a more authentic presentation of the products.
The digital menu board allows you to keep your menu always up to date and inform your customers about new products and special offers. The updating process is seamless, and no additional personnel are required to replace signs.
Many restaurants offer seasonal products. These products are often more fresh and have better quality. This is also the reason many guests like to go to restaurants that offer seasonal dishes.
The board shows the menu. Your guests will have the opportunity to find out in advance what you will be offering soon. If their favorite dish is on the menu, they can decide to make a reservation.
Using digital menu cards makes it easier to comply with nutritional information and allergen regulations. Making the most important information visible is a crucial factor.
Digital menu boards can play animations and videos. Moving images generate higher attention than static content.
One additional advantage of the digital menu board is that it is easier to up-sell and cross-sell. The digital display allows you to easily offer different combinations of main dishes and drinks and adjust prices accordingly. Generate more sales by offering different options to your guests.
A digital menu board is a modern and attractive way to represent your gastronomy business. It helps strengthen your brand and set your business apart from the competition.
A digital menu board can also inform and entertain your guests. In this way, you shorten the perceived waiting time in a fast-food restaurant until the kitchen prepares the food.
A happy hour, for example, can also be time-controlled and scheduled in advance. The menu cards can be used to address different target groups at different times.
The most important point from our standpoint. A digital menu board fits seamlessly into any digitization concept. By interfacing with third-party manufacturers, marketing workflows at restaurant chains can be automated and optimized.
Of course! SmilControl as a software provider supports you in the implementation of your digital menu board, whether you want to create it manually, automated or even interactive. During the conceptual design of our software, all these cases were considered.
We split the content maintenance of the digital menu boards into 4 levels:
You, your employees, or an agency create images and videos with your offers. You upload these to our CMS and organize them into playlists. This is a standard functionality of modern digital signage, and any software should actually be able to handle it.
An agency creates professional templates, with placeholders for our system. This is relatively simple with our template engine because it uses the standardized SVG format, which every graphics processing program can handle.
You or your employees use these templates and fill in the placeholders with text or change the images. In this way, you create professional-looking offers and change the menu board in a snap, without any design knowledge.
From here on, the industrial workflows begin. In this case, the placeholders from the templates are not filled in by humans, but automatically. The data comes from a feed or a database and reaches the associated template via APIs.
This brings huge advantages for restaurant chains. Franchisors generally operate in a centralized manner and control the digital menu boards of their franchisees worldwide. They, in turn, are allowed to integrate local offerings manually, depending on the arrangement.
Such a hierarchical workflow for time-limited content, as well as marketing, can be mapped with our CMS.
In the USA, some fast-food restaurants have started to install vending machines with interactive monitors recently. Customers put together their menu, pay for it, and pick it up when called. 2017 McDonald's in New York introduced the “Big Mac Vending Machine” as a marketing gimmick.
We can implement all this interactivity as well. This works with a technology called Digital Signage Widgets, which is fully supported by our software.
Our digital signage software was designed to be open and collaborative to handle future requirements and interfaces.
A digital menu board is usually composed of several monitors that are either connected to a small computer or have it integrated into the case. The devices, which are connected to the Internet, run player software.
There are many ways to integrate digital menu boards into your business. The best method depends on your requirements and preferences.
Take time to explore and compare the different options. There are many hardware vendors on the market, so you should make sure you make the right choice for your operation. We have previous experience in this area and are happy to help.
We provide you with the necessary software for the operation of digital menu boards. We also have the necessary expertise to advise you on the purchase of hardware. Furthermore, we cooperate with various manufacturers, so it will not be a problem to find the optimal hardware for your project.
SmilControl is a software company which provides technology. Our business model is based on partnerships. Meanwhile, we cooperate with some companies that provide digital signage services based on our software.
Our partners offer full service with technical support and on-site setup. Just contact us and we will be happy to direct you to the best partner for you.
Germany
☎ +49 (0) 511 - 96 499 560
Local court Hanover
HRB 221981
VAT-Id: DE 281 780 194
